MINNEAPOLIS — A Minneapolis man has been charged with kidnapping his friends’ 4-year-old boy from the backyard of their home.

Twenty-four-year-old Xavier Fritz-Smead was charged Thursday with kidnapping, false imprisonment, third-degree assault, fleeing police in a motor vehicle and two counts of assaulting a police officer.

A criminal complaint states the boy’s mother and father witnessed the abduction Tuesday evening after hearing Fritz-Smead shout the woman’s name. It said Fritz-Smead grabbed the boy, put him in a vehicle and drove away.

A police officer spotted the vehicle near Interstate 494 in Plymouth after receiving a call about an erratic driver. Fritz-Smead was arrested after a brief police chase. The boy was uninjured and returned to his family.

Fritz-Smead is scheduled to appear in court today. It wasn’t immediately known if he has an attorney yet.